The Ancients · History Hit

The First Popes

January 29, 2026·56 min·5 clips
Discover how 6th-century papal officials secretly compiled biographies using hidden estate records and letters.
This episode explores the origins of the papacy through the Liber Pontificalis, a 6th-century biographical work on early popes. Host Tristan Hughes interviews Professor Rosamund McKittrick about key figures like Saint Peter, Sylvester I during Constantine's era, and Leo I who met Attila the Hun, revealing how Christianity evolved in Rome.

As heard by us

A measured study of how Rome's first popes take shape through tradition, liturgy, and uncertain chronology.

The First Popes approaches the early Roman papacy as a careful act of reconstruction. Peter anchors the tradition, but the surviving evidence keeps parts of the story unsettled, and the episode is at its best when it lets that uncertainty remain visible.

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Why you'd press play

You get a measured trip back to Imperial Rome, where the first bishops of Rome come into view through Saint Peter, early Christian memory, and the Liber Pontificales.

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